Mamma Mia! Nancy Dell’Olio Shows Us Sven Goran Eriksson

IT was at last summer’s World Cup that England fans realised Sven Goran Eriksson had sold them a dummy.

Distracted by Nancy Dell’Olio, tales of secretary keepie-uppy in the Football Association’s offices and orange-skinned Wags, fans had largely overlooked the fact that Eriksson’s England team were devoid of direction, guile, skill, ability, teamwork, excitement and cohesion.

But that was then. And who knew that shorn of Eriksson, England supporters would hanker for those halcyon days of prosaic football and so much fake bake.

So in celebration of the time when fame was all and talent was wearing heavy make-up in a Baden-Baden boutique, Sven’s main strike partner Nancy Dell’Olio has written a book.

My Beautiful Game will tell the world about Sven and Nancy, as serialised in the Mail.

Today Nancy tells us how Sven won her heart. “Even now, I have no explanation for the love affair that changed my life,” writes Nancy. And we are hooked. Who knew that Nancy would share so much with David Copperfield’s bildungsroman?

One of us is crying
One of us is lying

“I was content in my marriage and had no flirtations or extra-marital interest of any kind. The idea of an affair was something I discussed with my husband Giancarlo as a thing that happened to other people. But then it happened to me,” writes Nancy.

Love happened when Nancy happened upon the “vaguely academic and inscrutable” looking Sven. Meeting one was in a Rome restaurant. The second meeting was in a club.

They passed me by, all of those great romances
You were, I felt, robbing me of my rightful chances

Writes Nancy “Again I felt those ice-blue Nordic eyes lock on to me. I noticed a look of shock mixed with desire, which came across as shy over-attentiveness verging on obsession.”

England fans may well agree. This was the look on Sven’s face when David Beckham scored that goal against the Greeks that clinched 2002 World Cup finals qualification. The look when Sven to talked to the media. The look when Sven saw England defeated by Northern Ireland. The look when Sven saw Faria Alam. The look when Sven emptied the dishwasher.

Nancy tells of the “white-hot laser of his stare”. Who needs Alex Ferguson’s hair-dryer when your eyes can melt flesh?

And: “For my part, I felt the magnetic curiosity of a woman who knows she has ignited the passion of an exceptional man.”

Wishing she was somewhere else instead

And then his first words in camera: “After a few mumbled pleasantries-I heard myself ask: ‘Would you like to have lunch sometime?”

They lunched. An affair began.

“I had loathed living a lie. Now there was no way out without telling my husband and causing him intense suffering. But Sven and I were also in pain, and I could not bear the thought of losing him.

“I kept thinking of the legend of King Arthur, whose queen, Guinevere, fell in love with Sir Lancelot. I felt we were a trapped triangle. I knew both men loved me and that only I could make the choice.”

But Nancy was disappointed. “My Sir Lancelot had given in to doubts about his Guinevere, and instead of riding in on his charger and carrying me off had held back and sulked,” says she.

Waiting for a call
Sorry for herself, feeling stupid feeling small
Wishing she had never left at all

But eventually Sven called. Nancy got the nod. And it was on with the show…